Endoscopes are typically used for minimally invasive surgery or to provide access to an internal location of a patient so that a doctor is provided with visual access. Endoscopes, during use, may be inserted into a location that may include debris that may cover the end of the endoscope and especially cover an imaging device located at the end of the endoscope. For example, an endoscope being used for surgery may become covered by blood and the blood may impair the vision of a surgeon so that surgery becomes increasingly difficult. Attempts have been made to provide various devices to assist a surgeon in clearing the debris from the imaging device of the endoscope and restore vision. These devices may remove some of the debris from the imaging device of the endoscope, however, these devices may not remove all of the debris and/or may leave spots on the imaging device, which may result in continued impairment. Further, movement of the endoscope during use may cause axial or rotational movement of the device relative to the endoscope so that the devices become less effective and/or impairs imaging using the imaging device.
Examples of some endoscope cleaning devices may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,646,722; 5,170,774; 5,419,309; 5,575,756; 6,110,103; 6,126,592; 6,447,446; and 7,811,228, all of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein for all purposes. It would be attractive to have an endoscope sheath having an arm that aligns a tip of an endoscope sheath with endoscope tips of various viewing angles. It would be attractive to have an endoscope sheath that directs fluid and/or suction across a distal end of the endoscope so that debris and other imagine blocking substances are removed from the distal tip of the endoscope. It would be attractive to have an endoscope sheath with an alignment device (i.e., an arm) that rotationally and axially immobilizes the endoscope sheath with regard to the endoscope. What is needed is an endoscope sheath that is configured to receive fluid, suction, one or more functional devices, or a combination thereof so that the fluid, suction, one or more functional devices, or a combination thereof that extend from a proximal end to a distal end.